


Mekakucity SAVEstate

by chickadee_39



Category: Kagerou Project
Genre: Gen, Spoilers for Kagerou Project, this is an entire separate route
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:41:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26716930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chickadee_39/pseuds/chickadee_39
Summary: "But you know, it wasn't always like that."A story that eyes had a low probability of meeting with.This route follows some of manga route 2's back story scenarios, mixed with scenarios that occur in most other routes, but also includes unique events."when you play a game several times in a row, it’s nice to be able to change the outcome by manipulating your luck a little""-It makes it more interesting!”
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	1. Losstime Prologue I

But you know, it wasn’t always like that.

I didn’t always end up hiding in the daze to keep the final snake away from the clearing eyes.

Why’s that, you ask?  
Simple.

It’s because just a few times, the snake of clearing eyes would stay hidden until the last moment, like that day that Marie first promised to remember that particular feeling.

Compared to the other routes we’ve been down, the one I am about to remind you of had a very low probability of being able to happen. It was almost as if someone was strategically saving and continuously reloading the story to ensure the rarest possibilities could come to be.

I=======I=======I

Mekakucity SAVEstate

I=======I=======I

Losstime Prologue I

I=======I=======I

>logging in as ENE…  
>…  
>login failed.  
>ERROR: Could not establish connection to the server.  
>…  
>Try again? (Y/N)

Takane sighed, dejectedly smacking her head on her desk. _Dead Bullet -1989-_ had become very popular very quickly, and the sudden announcement of a tournament had caused an overload on the game’s servers, leaving it so that no one could practice for the preliminaries that would be starting soon. This was just the sort of thing that would get her wound up enough to- to?

The next thing she knew, she was on her futon with her grandmother cradling her face.

“Takane! Takane, can you hear me?” she wept over her.

“Ah, granny… I’m okay now. Sorry to bother you.”

“I’m glad. Please drink extra water and get some rest. It should help your health.”

Takane nodded and grabbed the water thermos that her grandmother had brought to her room for her.

“Good night, sleep well.”

“Good night,” Takane returned.

She tried to remember what she had been doing. She was about to login to her game, right? She couldn’t remember if she had done that yet.

She carefully got up and checked her computer. It still displayed the login screen with the message:  
> try again? (Y/N)

She typed Y and was immediately given another prompt.

>ERROR: the servers are currently down for maintenance.  
>we apologize for the inconvenience. (End)

Perhaps going to sleep now would be for the best, she decided.

I=======I=======I

She had managed to avoid having anymore weak spells as she worked her way through the preliminaries and up to the national finals. She had worked hard for this, and she was worried that another incident may worry her grandmother too much for her to be allowed to attend the finals in person.

But her streak of success came to a sudden end. She had gone 1 v. 1 against the most insufferable, pompous player she had ever met in her life for the grand finale. It was humiliating to lose to not only some prick, but also to be torn away from first place at the last moment by him.

She remembered preparing to go on stage to accept her second place trophy, but now…

She was in a hospital. She could see herself there on the bed, like it was an out of body experience. She came to the realization that she was, in fact not in her body. Was she dead? Oh no. She must be dead. She saw the monitor on her heartbeat flat-line just then, so she tried to reach out towards her body, in disbelief that this was truly where everything was about to end.

She felt an odd sensation, like a static shock ripple through her body, and suddenly was back in her body, gasping for air. She was definitely not dead now. She hyperventilated for a few moments before regaining her composure.

A nurse came rushing in, taking in the scene and sighing in relief when she saw Takane appeared to be healthy.

“We got an alert that something strange happened with your heartbeat. You seem to be okay, so it may have only been a fault with the system. Either way, let me check a few things to make sure you’re okay, sound good?”

Takane nodded carefully. Whether it was a nightmare, whether she was truly dead for a moment, whether the machine just had an error, or whatever had happened, her heartbeat must really have flat-lined on the monitor for a moment. That didn’t usually happen when she had a weak spell, as far as she knew. But her doctors and her grandmother had always told her symptoms can change as you grow. Having a near death experience any time she had a weak spell was not something she was hoping would become normal.

I=======I======I

After she had received a scolding from the hospital and her grandmother, thanked the event organizer who called to have her admitted to the hospital, and got settled back at home, she felt oddly refreshed sitting at her computer in her room, booting it up to see if anyone was discussing the results of the nationals.

She saw a photo of herself with the second-place trophy on the stage at the venue. She couldn’t remember that, but she was glad that there was proof she had made it on stage. That meant she hadn’t fainted while people had their eyes on her.

The guy who had won first place looked rather unenthused for someone who had just kicked her ass. Ugh. What she wouldn’t give to slap that guy up the side of his face right here, right now. She felt like she could reach into the picture and pull back her hand, when she noticed something.

She was there, floating in front of the picture like it was a mural displayed in a vacuum of space.

She looked around, trying to figure out what had happened. She wasn’t herself; she was dressed like Ene, her avatar from _Dead Bullet -1989-._ The words of the article she had been viewing were above and below the image, and behind her, was the shape of her monitor, showing her where her true body was, now face down on her desk. She rushed towards it and reached out, crossing the threshold.

She suddenly woke up, observing a fading red glow reflected in her eyes as she looked into her monitor.

She grabbed her face and took a few deep breaths. Maybe she was still subconsciously thinking about her out of body experience at the hospital. Maybe she should go to sleep early tonight.

I=======I=======I

She gradually discovered that her out of body experiences weren’t random hallucinations, but she was actually able to enter technology. She slowly tested out her skills, finding her limits, deducing that she must’ve accidentally caused the heart rate monitor to flat-line when she thought she had died the first time this had happened.

She hadn’t completely mastered it before causing herself to end up in the hospital once more by losing track of the time she spent in the virtual world. She couldn’t share her secret though, even if she wanted to, no one would believe her.

I=======I======I

Chapter /END


	2. Happiness Theory I

I=======I=======I

Happiness Theory I

I=======I=======I

Ayano lived a happy life with her happy family, her parents and her three younger siblings. They had settled into their lives there quite happily by that time.

That was why Ayano had suggested they all try out going to school since they had been able to control their special eyes fairly well.

They weren’t very interested at first.

“What if they don’t notice me when they take attendance?”

“What if there are mean people in my class?”

“Nee-chan, don’t you get frustrated with bad grades all the time? Why are you even still going, much less suggesting we try?”

Ayano stifled a laugh. They all had fair points. “Can you try it for a few days, at least? Dad works there part time so we can let you try for free as a favor, and if something goes wrong, we can just forget about it.”

The three kids exchanged wary glances.

“Besides, I would like it if the mekakushi-dan could all help each other with homework, too,” she smiled.

She could tell they were giving in now. She was looking forward to bringing them with her to school.

I=======I=======I

“There you go Tsubomi~” Ayano softly sang, fixing the ribbon on the front of her little sister’s uniform.

Tsubomi’s face was as red as Ayano’s scarf. Her little sister wasn’t the sort to like wearing skirts like the middle school uniform called for.

She glanced over her three younger siblings one last time, fixing Kousuke’s sleeves, Shuuya’s jacket collar, and taking one of her own pins out of her hair to hold back some of Tsubomi’s bangs.

“This is a special mission for the mekakushi-dan, okay?” Ayano struck a pose, one hand on her scarf, the other in a dramatic sweeping motion past each of her siblings, trying to ease some of the tension.

It seemed to lift their spirits a little, so they all had smiles as they walked towards the school.

I=======I=======I

The class placements were posted in the main hallway of the school.

Seto Kousuke & Kido Tsubomi – Class 1-B

They had performed fairly well on the placement tests due to Seto’s interest in learning things in secluded places to avoid large crowds, and Kido’s upbringing from her late stepsister, Rin. They had coincidentally been placed together, or perhaps it was because a request from their father.

Kano Shuuya – Class 1-D (remedial)

He hadn’t performed as well, despite being roughly as smart as his siblings. He hadn’t taken the test particularly seriously, assuming that he would just leave when Seto and Kido would inevitably be fed up with trying to fit in. Even if there had had been a request for the three of them specifically to be placed together, the need for a remedial class took priority.

Kano had found his eyes drawn from the announcement to a girl who had found her name also under the listing for the remedial class, and was more than a little dejected about it.

“I studied so hard! How did this happen AGAIN?” She sighed, trying to hold back her tears.

Kano went to turn his eyes back to his siblings but found himself unable to look away from the girl. He noticed her eyes were a vivid red as she had removed her sleeve from in front of them after rubbing away her tears. She turned her head in another direction, which seemed to break the spell she had cast on Kano long enough for him to be pulled away by Seto and Kido.

“Kano, do you know that girl? You were giving her a kinda strange look.”

“You aren’t seriously already thinking about hitting on the girls here, are you?”

Kano laughed nervously, noting they hadn’t seemed to have found anything amiss about the girl the way he had.

“No, no! Of course not. I think I must have mistaken her for someone else.” The lie rolled off of his lips easily. Since she was going to be in his class, he could see if she really did have red eyes, or if he had deceived himself.

“Ah, alright then. Will you be okay without us in your class?”

“You should have studied with us so maybe we wouldn’t have to get separated.”

Kano let a smirk cross his face. “I’ll be fine, will you two be okay without me to make things interesting?”

Kido pouted at him, seeming ready to tell him what she thought of his remark with a jab, but Seto started pulling Kido away from Kano, down the hall to their classroom.

“Kido, we might get in trouble here if you do that. Kano, we’ll be fine. Let’s meet here after school like nee-chan told us to, okay?”

The three nodded in agreement, then went their separate ways.

I=======I=======I

There were 12 students in Kano’s class. Or, from the way he saw it, the class consisted of himself, the blonde crybaby who might have red eyes, and 10 unimportant students.

The teacher had already begun lecturing them about how they needed to put their best foot forward, and that this class wouldn’t be easy, and frankly sounded disappointed in the fact that there were enough students to warrant an ordinary classroom instead of one of the special instruction rooms. What a way to greet 12- and 13-year-old kids. If Seto and Kido were here too, Kido would probably be invisible out of shame, and Seto would have already run out the door crying.

Speaking of crying, how was the blonde girl doing?

She was nodding fervently to whatever the teacher was saying, probably still about paying attention and working hard. She seemed foolishly hopeful, just like his nee-chan.

The blonde girl’s eyes had a sparkle to them, but they appeared to be a dark brown color, rather than red. That could just mean that her power wasn’t active, but who knows.

The students had each been introducing themselves, and when the blonde girl walked up, she struck a weird pose. Kano had laughed at this, as did a few other students, but Kano’s laughter was cut off at the realization that he couldn’t look away from this girl and her now red eyes.

“I’m Kisaragi Momo! 12 years old! I’m a first-year middle school student!” She explained, all while holding her awkward pose. “I uhh, like drawing, and idols! Let’s get along!” She bowed and walked back to her seat next to Kano. But everyone’s eyes were following her.

Kano was dumbfounded. This girl’s eyes had turned red, and he couldn’t look away. She looked at him, smiling nervously, eyes still red. She said something, but Kano was still thinking about what best to do with the knowledge that he ended up in a class with someone with those red eyes like he and his siblings have. She said something else, averting her still vivid red pupils.

“Ah, sorry, what was that?” Kano asked. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“It’syourturntointroduceyourself” she muttered out at a rapid pace; face hidden in her arms on her desk.

The whole class laughed at both of them.

“Oh, I see! Right, well,” Kano tried to play it off casually. He hadn’t actually payed attention to the other student’s introductions, so his gut reaction was to imitate Momo’s.

Careful not to let himself accidentally mirror her so closely that he’d become Momo, he struck Ayano’s pose from that morning, and introduced himself, “Kano Shuuya. 12 years old. My hobby is,” he paused, deciding for a moment what to say. “Laughing. My hobby is laughing.”

Momo’s smile caught his eye. Her eyes were still red, and he couldn’t look away from her. But he didn’t mind looking at her smile very much, since she definitely had those red eyes as well, which meant they had something in common.

I=======I=======I

As class ended, Kano approached Momo.

“Say, Kisaragi-san,”

“Eh? Oh, Kano-san, what is it?”

“About your eyes,”

“Oh, did I get an eyelash in one of them? That happens a lot, people always say my eyes look red, but no amount of trying to fix it ever seems to make people stop asking.”

“Huh? No, something else. They’re red, but it’s a ruby red. Like this.” He showed her a different expression than the one he was actually making, letting his red eyes become visible to her.

“Woah!” she smiled. “My eyes do that, too? That’s weird. I had no idea.”

Unbelievable. This girl was unbelievable. Before Kano could think of a reaction to Momo’s obliviousness, she continued.

“Is that why everyone is always looking at me? Do they think it’s weird when my eyes do that, so they have to keep staring because I’m too weird?”

“Maybe,” Kano let slip without thinking, which made Momo hang her head, prompting him to continue. “Red eyes are weird. They’re always a little different depending on the person. I have siblings who have them too.”

“Oh!” Momo became extremely chipper again. “Is it that maybe,” she took a breath, and then continued in an oddly dramatic voice, “I’m a long-lost sibling of yours?”

Kano laughed. She was so close to getting it yet kept completely missing the mark. “I don’t think so, but maybe we can talk to my siblings and find out, if that’s okay?”

“I’d like that, but mom said I have to be careful where I go since everyone is always looking at me, so maybe not.” She frowned.

“It’s okay,” Kano explained, extending his hand for her to take, “We don’t even have to leave the school.”

Momo’s eyes shimmered again, but in their natural, dark brown color. She nodded and took his hand.

I======I=======I

Kano and Momo weaved enthusiastically through the hall to the entrance of the school where Ayano and the others were waiting for him.

Seto was the first to say something.

“Kano, you already got a girlfriend?”

“Ehh? No, no, it’s way more important. She has red eyes.”

“Ugh,” Kido sighed, “you can’t let us have a normal day without making something up and dragging someone into it, can you?”

“What? You think I’d lie about this?”

Ayano made a motion with her hands, trying to get her younger siblings to all settle down a bit. “There, there.” She turned to Kano. “Shuuya, your friend has red eyes?”

“Yes! It’s the truth. Kisaragi-san, show them!”

She hesitated, trying to blink her eyes to make them work. As Kano’s siblings watched her carefully, she became nervous, and struck another weird pose like the one she had made during her introduction during class, but decidedly different.

“I’m Ki-Kisaragi Momo! I’m 12 years old! I’m a first-year middle schooler! I like drawing and idols!”

Kano hummed, realizing that she must’ve repeated her introduction just now as a gut reaction after a lot of rehearsal.

Yet, somehow, this caused her eyes to activate, and awed expressions appeared on Ayano and the rest’s faces.

“Kisaragi-chan,” Ayano softy gripped Momo’s shoulder, “Do you think it would be okay if you come visit my house to see my mom soon? She knows a lot about red eyes.”

Momo’s eyes teared up. “Does that mean we’re really friends?”

“Of course,” Shuuya smiled, in a surprisingly genuine way.

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	3. Happiness Theory II

I=======I=======I

Happiness Theory II

I=======I=======I

Ayano-nee-chan’s mom looked a lot like her. She must have gotten both her looks and her naturally calming presence from her mom.

“Those kids were telling me that you have red eyes like them, Kisaragi-chan,” Ayaka explained. “Is that right? Can you tell me a bit about that?”

“Huh?” Momo tilted her head. “I thought you were going to tell _me_ about it?”

“Ah, sorry! I just need to know what you know first, so I can make sure your experience matches my research so far.”

Momo didn’t quite understand what she meant by that, but she explained what she knew anyway. How people were always looking at her, and have been ever since she could remember, and that Kano was the one that pointed out that her eyes turn red whenever that happened.

Ayaka nodded along, writing down things as she encouraged Momo to elaborate. “Are you sure you don’t remember when it started?”

Momo put her palms under her chin and leaned into them, staring into the ground. “I remember I definitely felt people looking at me when I started elementary school.”

Ayaka nodded, looked up and down her notepad, and sat silently contemplating for a moment.

“Kisaragi-san,” she began, in a voice that was rather serious, but somehow more careful than before, “has anything scary ever happened to you? Like a time that you were in a lot of danger?”

Momo looked up at her and blinked.

Ayaka continued. “Something like, being in a burning building,” she paused to see if she had thought of anything.

“Or maybe a robber broke into your house.” Another pause.

“Or possibly, you nearly drowned when you ended up in a river, among other possibilities?”

Momo went to open her mouth, and her lips started quivering. “The ocean,” she murmured.

“I see.” Ayaka gave a weak smile, setting down her notepad and pen. She pulled some tissues from a box on her desk and gave them to Momo. “I’m sorry to hear something like that happened to you.”

“My dad,” Momo continued, through sniffles, “I know that everyone says it wasn’t my fault, but still…”

“It’s okay, Kisaragi-chan,” Ayaka soothed her, getting up from her chair to give her a hug, “you don’t have to say anything else if you don’t want to. It’s okay if you need to take a break before you’re ready to hear what I can tell you about those eyes of yours, too, alright?”

They shared a quiet moment before Ayano called them for dinner.

As they entered the hall, Ayano’s father came up behind them.

“Ayaka, you didn’t adopt another child, did you?”

She laughed.

“No, I’m serious, I know you care about your studies, but I don’t know if we can afford to have anyone else live here.”

Ayaka was still giggling, so Momo replied in her place. “Just a friend!”

He tried his best not to look embarrassed and ended up joining his wife’s laughter.

I=======I=======I

Still gathered around the table after eating, Ayano, her siblings, and Momo were cheerfully chatting.

“So, can Kisaragi-san be member number four?” Kano smiled to Ayano.

“Ah, but, the thing is, Marie, from the forest,” Seto tried to explain.

“Is she real, Seto? We still haven’t seen her,” Kido replied.

Ayaka interjected from the kitchen. “Marie-chan is case number 4, even though I don’t know much yet, so Kisaragi-chan is case number 5, if it matters in your little games.”

Ayano nodded. “Everyone, let’s have Kisaragi-chan be member number 5 of the mekakushi-dan then, okay?”

As she was both their big sister and leader of the mekakushi-dan, the other 3 members currently present easily agreed with her. “Alright!”

Momo had a big smile and seemed like she was about to burst into tears again.

Kano tilted his head. “Hey, what is it? Do you not like the number 5, Kisaragi-san?” He snickered.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and shook her head. “Momo. You’re my first friends, so please call me Momo!”

“Well Momo,” Ayano smiled, “welcome to the mekakushi-dan!”

Ayaka returned from the kitchen, catching the group’s attention. “Momo is going to need a little mission briefing before she can be a full-fledged member, so I can I borrow her for a few more minutes?”

They groaned but still conceded. It wasn’t long before Momo was able to join in their games before the sun began to go down, and she needed to go back home. Before she left, Ayano explained that they used hoodies to hide their red eyes, and since Seto had needed a new one after giving his to Marie, she should join them to go shopping next weekend so she could pick one, too.

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	4. Losstime Prologue II

I=======I=======I

Losstime Prologue II

I=======I========I

Takane was pissed that she would have to stay at the hospital for at least a full month this time. She couldn’t remember the last time she had to stay that long. Also, they didn’t allow her to play video games in the room that she was staying in. She could play them outside, but if you wanted to go outside, you needed to go with someone.

The only “someone” she knew here was her new roommate, Haruka. Haruka was a boy who almost always had his nose in a sketchbook, making sweeping motions as he drew whatever sort of things he was drawing. They had introduced themselves to each other a few days ago, but Takane had brushed off most of his efforts to interact with her.

She was kind of regretting pushing him away since she couldn’t bury herself in her electronics, but she assured herself that he seemed like a frail, softie, pushover that wasn’t worth her time.

But she was kind of lonely. But also, what if he was drawing something utterly stupid in that dumb sketchbook of his?

Takane had a unique advantage there, however. Using the weird power she had developed several months ago, she could hop inside of a piece of equipment near him, take a look, and if she wanted nothing to do with him, she could just forget about him completely and find a different way to entertain herself.

Laying down, she let her digital form slip into the wires so she could navigate over to his side of the room and look out from one of the monitors.

When she arrived there, he was drawing creatures from a game that Takane used to play a lot before she switched over to playing online games more often. Somehow, more so from this angle, it was obvious that Haruka looked pleasantly immersed in his craft, the way that pro video gamers looked in the heat of the match they were winning, or master musicians looked performing their favorite piece.

Takane thought she felt her cheeks heat up in that moment. But that shouldn’t be possible in a digital form, should it? She shook her head to banish the train of thought and went back to reunite with her physical form.

She sat up and stared across the room at Haruka. She still felt a bit worked up over his intense expression. She wasn’t sure what emotion was filling up in her, but it was powerful and irritating her to have it muddling her head. She tried to swallow the feeling and work up to courage to talk.

“Say, Kokonose-san, what’re you drawing?”

He stopped, but he hadn’t looked up yet. Did he hear her? Was it just a coincidence that he stopped?

“Oh, Takane-san, I’m glad you asked,” he smiled, finally looking up. He held up his sketchbook, revealing a rabbit-like creature. “Your hairstyle reminded me of this one’s ears. It’s from that popular series with all the various creatures you can catch, you know about it, right?”

That powerful, muddling feeling became stronger. She wanted him to shut up right now, even though she didn’t know why. But she also didn’t want to make him stop talking to her again and have to sit in silence.

So, in a slightly sharper tone than she probably should’ve used, she answered him. “Of course I do! I love that game. Playing video games is my favorite thing!”

He let out a small gasp. For a moment, Takane feared she had offended him. But then he grinned and cheerfully replied, “Awesome, I’m glad we have something in common after all!”

This caused the powerful feeling in Takane to exceed her comprehension. She was numb to the feeling for a moment. “I’m calling the nurse so we can go outside and play games then.” She pressed a button, began to dig through her bag, and pulled out two nearly identical handheld game systems.

Haruka had been silent as she did this, but when she held up the pair of systems, he finally gave her a reply.

“That sounds fun.”

I======I======I

The days passed by quickly, and even though it was cold outside, they continued to go out nearly every day.

“Haruka, use this button to make a save state. It lets you get some really cool stuff that’s hard to get otherwise!”

“Is that how you’re supposed to play?”

“It doesn’t matter, when you play a game several times in a row, it’s nice to be able to change the outcome by manipulating your luck a little with extra do-overs! It makes it more interesting!”

“Okay then,” he decided, looking at her with that somewhat vacant look of his, which would gradually get colored with a smile as he understood what she was getting at.

Takane had taught him how to play every game she had with her over those few weeks. She was surprised when she was handed a clipboard by the nurse that was checking on her.

“What’s this?” she asked the nurse.

“It’s confirmation of your date of discharge, and instructions on how best to care for your health in the future.”

“This date… is this soon?”

“It’s this Friday. Today’s Tuesday.”

Takane counted on her fingers. “What? I thought I was supposed to be here for a month.”

“I guess you lost track of time playing with your new friend,” the nurse laughed. “Just have those filled out before 4 PM today, okay?” She waved as she stepped out the door.

The uncomfortable silence of the room had seeped back in within moments of the door’s click. Despite how short of a time she thought she had been there, it felt like it might’ve been years since she had befriended Haruka and stopped feeling that eerie emptiness, but truthfully, it had been about three and a half weeks.

“Discharge…” she read off of the page.

“Discharge…” Haruka echoed from across the room.

He made a happy face like the ones he usually made when talking to Takane, but there was something just a bit off about it. “Congratulations, Takane! I bet you’re looking forward to going home.” The reply felt mechanical and stiff for someone who had fallen into the habit of speaking so casually with her in just a few weeks.

Takane couldn’t take it. She felt anger flare up inside of her.

“IDIOT!” she spat out. She couldn’t form the thought she wanted to follow it with. She kept awkwardly breathing and trying to form words, but nothing came out.

Haruka’s gasp didn’t turn into a smile this time. His mouth had no expression, but eyes drooped.

She finally found some words. They weren’t what she was really feeling, but they had some truth to them. “You can’t just call me by my name like a friend for all this time and then just congratulate me for getting to leave like that!”

He was really remorseful. For the first time, he intentionally looked away from her, and looked down at the floor next to his bed. “Sorry.”

“You need to hurry up and get better, or else I won’t be able to show off that cool Ene and Konoha combo technique we perfected.”

He looked up, but not directly at her.

“And another thing, you’re gonna keep that game system I’ve been lending you, so you don’t get rusty! If you want me to take it back, then get well by any means possible and deliver it to my house yourself, got it?”

He met her gaze.

“Do you understand me?” She asked again.

He nodded and gave a soft agreement.

“Good.” Her voice quivered a little.

“Sorry.” He said.

“Hmm?”

“Sorry for making you cry.”

“Cry? Sh-shut up! I’m not crying.” She made weird gestures with her hands, trying to hide the tears she definitely wasn’t crying. “I need to fill out this paperwork, so… draw or something until I’m ready to play some more, okay?”

Haruka’s genuine smile finally returned. “Okay, Takane!”

Later, when the day of Takane’s discharge came, Haruka gave her a drawing of their avatars, Ene and Konoha, with the words ‘see you next level’ written around them.

I=======I=======I

Security camera footage found its way into the hands of Ayaka Tateyama. She wrote on a spread sheet, in a row below Momo’s name: ‘case study number 6 – Enomoto Takane’, skipped several blank spaces in that same row, and wrote ‘opening eyes’.

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	5. Ene's Cyber Journey

I=======I=======I

Ene’s Cyber Journey

I=======I=======I

“Kenjiro, I’m thinking of cancelling that little excursion we were going to go on. A lot of important things to look into have come up in the last few weeks, so it might be better to look into those more extensively before I try getting any new tips. Sorry to suddenly put our plans into question.” Ayaka had clapped her hands together and gave him an apologetic bow.

“Why apologize to me?” he laughed, “You said it yourself, it would be for _your_ research. I was only going to go with to support you.”

“I thought we’d go have some fun too, you know?”

“Is that right? Well, that’s a shame then if we don’t go.”

“If not then, another time, for sure! Anyway, I have an interview with someone for another case study tomorrow! I’m super pumped. Maybe I’ll finally be able to understand those children’s red eyes in a way that can help them.”

“You always work so hard, I’m sure it will go well.”

“I’ll do my best!”

I======I======I

“Nice to meet you! I’m Tateyama Ayaka. You’re Enomoto Takane, correct?’

Takane stood in the doorway of a small meeting room at the hospital she had recently been at. “Yes. That’s me. You wanted to talk to me about my condition?”

“That’s right. About your eyes.”

“My eyes? Are you sure you have the right person? My condition deals with suddenly fainting and experiencing memory loss. That doesn’t have anything to do with my eyes, as far as I know.”

“I see, interesting.” Ayaka took down a note about that.

“’Interesting’?? What’s that supposed to mean? Didn’t you invite me here to talk _to me_ about my condition? Why are you taking notes?”

“I understand if you don’t want to talk about it to just anyone, but I have proof that you have another condition as well.”

“What? It’s not something else people are gonna start worrying over me about even more than they already are, is it? Please say it isn’t, I’m so sick of that.”

“Well, ideally, no one else finds out, since it’s less of a sickness, more of a secret ability.”

“A-…Ability?”

Ayaka could see the realization creep into Takane’s expression. “You realize now, don’t you? I’m referring to that. The thing that makes you different.”

“Just what do you mean by that?”

Ayaka’s face became serious, and in a quiet, yet firm voice, she explained. “Enomoto Takane-san, when you came to this hospital around a month and a half ago, your eyes changed color and you did something with the wires in your room. You clearly demonstrate some level of mastery over this technique, so I need you to tell me everything you know about when you got it and how you use it, in order to protect the future of those who aren’t as bold as you are.”

That suffocating silence Takane hated came across the room. It wasn’t truly silent. There was a low hum from the various technology scattered throughout the building, the faint echo of wind from the season changing outside, the subtle noise of her own breath, and a tiny ringing in one ear from her prolonged use of headphones and keeping them just a bit too loud.

“Is there a future you want to protect, Enomoto-san? Something you look forward to seeing come to fruition?”

Takane hung her head, thinking of Haruka’s smiling face, the time they spent playing games outside, and the picture he drew for her as a going away gift. “Yeah.”

“Will you help me, for the sake of that kind of person’s future?”

“I will. It started on August 15th last year, the day of the finals of the first national championship for this game I play…”

I=======I=======I

After exiting the room, Takane considered checking if Haruka was still there.

“If he tries to give me back the system I gave him, he’s gonna have to beat me in a game or 5 before I even think about accepting it.”

When she reached the door, she peered into the room through the glass. Haruka was there, and he was talking with people on the opposite side of the room. There were some guests, a girl with a red scarf, a smaller blonde girl, and the patient in the bed on that side was-

If Takane was holding something in that moment, she would have snapped it. She would recognize that stuck-up jerk’s face anywhere. This was the guy that kicked her ass at the tournament last year. Oh, she wanted so badly to march in there and smack him upside the face, not just for the humiliation back then, but also for the nerve of him and his guests acting all friendly with her Haruka.

“Kisaragi Shintaro, eh?” she fumed, typing herself a note in her phone. She would think of a way to exact revenge on him later. She didn’t couldn’t face him right now; not without a solid strategy.

I======I======I

Ayaka returned home with Ayano and Momo. Momo would be staying at the Tateyama’s for a few days since her mom’s health was poor, and her big brother was still recovering from his injury.

The little secret agents made quite a ruckus getting back together but settled down after Momo had turned on the tv to watch an idol performance.

Ayaka had begun digging through news from the day of the championship that Takane had told her about. Since Takane didn’t actually remember anything between finishing the tournament, and waking up at the hospital where she first experienced her power, Ayaka was pretty sure that something terrible must have happened in that window of time, causing the snake of opening eyes from the myth of the Medusa to somehow become connected to her, the way the other snakes from the myth had become connected to the other children.

“A gas leak at the venue… a few people on duty at the venue then went missing that same day…”

Ayaka tapped her fingers on her desk. This was concerning. She thumbed through one of her folders, passing missing persons reports for Momo’s father, Kano’s mom, and Kido’s sister, as well as a crayon drawing of a puppy with “Hanako-chan” scribbled out at the top.

Those who were missing. Those who had disappeared when the children gained their abilities.

She printed out the articles she had looked up and began marking them up to add to her folder.

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	6. Kisaragi Attention I

I=======I=======I

Kisaragi Attention I

I=======I=======I

“Shintaro said that mom might have to cut the internet at our house, since she’d have to pay a lot of money for them to be at the hospital,” Momo explained to the others in the mekakushi-dan. “I wanna get a part time job to help, but I’m only 12. Shintaro said he’d die if we had no internet. Even if he’s a dumb meanie to me sometimes, I don’t think he should die.”

Kido tilted her head. “But you have to work with people for jobs, wouldn’t you have too many people asking you to do things if you accidentally let your eyes turn red?”

“It’d be nice if your eyes attracted money instead of attention!” Kano snickered.

“Maybe there’s a job where attention makes you money?” Seto mused.

“If I could make money like that, maybe I could buy that new CD I wanted, and all those cute little sushi keychains I saw in a magazine the other day,” Momo sighed.

“Hmm.” The four secret agents pondered, lying around on the couch and the floor.

“Oh,” Kano put a finger to his chin, “You said something-,”

“Yeah?” Momo was hopeful that maybe he had a good idea.

“sushi,” he continued, “Maybe if you’re in a kitchen cooking, no one would be distracted by our eyes?”

Kido was bewildered by this before Momo could process it. “Ehh? Kano, you’ve seen nee-chan trying to teach me how to cook, haven’t you? It’s really hard, and if you make a mistake, people all look at you without needing red eyes.”

An ad for a CD by the idol Momo had just watched popped up on the TV, exciting Momo into sitting bolt upright.

“Oh, idols get a lot of attention, don’t they?” Seto realized at Momo’s reaction.

“Oh!” Momo looked back at Seto with her glimmering eyes. “Maybe I can be an idol too!” She enthusiastically pumped her fist. The others were sitting up now too.

Kido nodded in approval. “I think that would suit someone like you really well, Momo.”

Kano faked playing a guitar in the air. “Say Momo, do you need us to be a band so you can sing? We can be the mekakushi-band!”

Kido flailed her hand in front of her. “What? No, absolutely not. I can’t go on stage.”

“Hmm?” Kano leaned in towards Kido, with a scheming grin. “How could we have a band without the music expert? Who else would be willing to tell us when our music sounds like trash, and exactly how we can fix it?”

Kido was flustered. She made a fist and held it up toward Kano but was stopped by Seto and Momo.

“It’s okay, Kido,” Momo assured her, “I don’t need a band, most idols have prerecorded instrumentals like the ones at karaoke parlors!”

“I see.” Kido relaxed, and Seto and Momo released her. “But, who makes the karaoke tracks for them?”

Kano was about to open his mouth again, but he thought better of it after Seto and Momo had just saved him from one attempted attack.

“Well, I guess they have people who can make music on computers and stuff write it for them, and they just sing it?” Momo pondered.

Although Kano had kept his mouth closed, he had a knowing, ‘gotcha’ kind of smile as he looked for Kido’s reaction.

“I…,” Kido started to say, looking at the ground, mumbling. “… … …”

The other three leaned in to listen closer.

“Oh, really?” Seto said, smiling.

Momo and Kano looked at him. His eyes had turned red, which was rare for Seto. “Huh?”

“Didn’t you hear her?” he asked them.

“I’ll… I’ll write your debut song, Momo.” Kido stated, finally audible.

“Really?!” Momo hugged Kido. “Thank you thank you thank you!”

“Ahh, so that was it,” Kano nodded. “Seto, why didn’t you wait for her to tell us?”

“Huh? She didn’t say it? So that means…” he smacked his palm against his forehead. “Oh, it was just that I was thinking, I really wanted to know what she was trying to say in case she was actually about to try attacking you again. I guess I wanted to know it a little too much.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

When Seto and Kano turned back to look at the girls, they were gone. “Oh, I wonder if Tsubomi-chan will write a cute song?” Kano teased for his own amusement. He felt a pinch on his cheek.

“Ow-ow, ow…”

“Don’t call me that, jerk,” Kido’s voice came from seemingly nowhere, followed shortly later by a door upstairs closing.

Kano tenderly rubbed his cheek and looked around the room. He turned back to Seto. “Say, where’s nee-chan? She normally joins us when she’s home.”

Seto shrugged.

Kano pointed at the stairs. “I’m gonna go up and look for her.”

Seto nodded, then turned off the TV before following Kano.

When they got upstairs, they found Ayano at her desk in her room, and Kido sitting on her bed with Momo, sharing a pair of earbuds while they took turns looking things up on Momo’s phone.

“Nee-chan, what are you doing?” Seto asked her, walking up next to her, with Kano close behind.

“Ah, Kousuke, I’m glad you asked! I’m folding some paper cranes for Shintaro-kun, as a well wish to help his leg heal faster. Would you like to help me?”

“Yeah! I wanna help out Momo’s big brother, too.”

“Shuuya, since the girls are busy, will you help, too?”

Kano couldn’t say no to his big sister. “Sure, I can.”

Ayano hummed happily. “Oh, we should make some for his friend too, what was his name… Kokonoka-san? I can’t quite remember. But I think it would be nice, since he seemed lonely too.”

“Nee-chan, isn’t that going to be too many cranes?”

“Not for the mekakushi-dan!”

I=======I======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	7. Happiness Theory III

I=======I=======I

Happiness Theory III

I=======I=======I

Kano had been right about the inevitability of his siblings dropping out of school. Seto stopped first, still not in enough control of his eye power to keep outside thoughts from wandering in and hurting him. Kido withdrew shortly thereafter, when even her family stopped noticing her at home due to her thinning presence from trying to blend in at school. She said that it was just as well that she stay home, so she could work more on Momo’s debut song.

This left Kano in a bit of a pinch. He had intended to drop out right after his siblings with a remark like “it doesn’t make sense to keep going now”, but he still had a fellow member of the mekakushi-dan in his class. He could imagine her pleading eyes if she found out he was thinking about dropping out.

It wasn’t just Momo’s pleading eyes. He would definitely get the same reaction from Ayano.

In fact, Ayano became the main reason he decided to stay in school. He was most interested in keeping an eye on her as her mood gradually changed after delivering the paper cranes (which Momo fussed about Haruka being more grateful for them than her big brother was), and especially in the days after Kido and Seto had dropped out. She had become less smiley and watchful with just one younger sibling to watch over, now seeming a bit distant and contemplative. Ayano appeared to be on the verge of trying to tell Kano something, but couldn’t seem to find the words.

After several days, she stopped brushing off questions with answers like “it’s nothing” or “don’t worry”. She finally came around with a different response.

“Shuuya, your big sister wants to protect the future of the mekakushi-dan. If it was you, how would you choose to protect that future?”

“Hmm? Well, whatever you want to do, I think it would work out fine.”

“I guess that it is a rather difficult question after all, huh?”

He caught a glimpse of her serious expression, despite her averted gaze. “Nee-chan, why are you asking now? And why me?”

A classic Ayano smile spread across her lips, but her voice continued to carry the weight of her worry. “It was your birthday recently. I usually forget that we end up the same age for a few months; but going to school together makes it harder to forget this time. Everyone’s asking my class about high school entrance exams and what they want to do for the future, and I just thought that it would be good to think about the mekakushi-dan’s future too.”

Kano reflected Ayano’s smile. That made two fake smiles. He was sure she also knew that their mom was staying up later and later, trying to connect her new data points to her original set. Kano knew. Ayano knew. Everyone knew. If any member of the Tateyama household had woken up in the middle of the night to leave their room on any night since Ayaka interviewed Momo, they would see the light on in the study.

“The mekakushi-dan’s future. I wonder what sort of future it’ll be?” Kano mused.

Ayano looked back towards him, with a difficult to read expression.

“As long as all of us are together, any kind of future’s fine by me,” he assured his big sister, with a smirk and a wink.

Ayano’s smile finally reached her eyes as she giggled in response. “I think that’s a pretty easy type of future to protect after all, then. I’m glad.”

I=======I=======I

Ayano now had something to accomplish. That thing was “all of us together”, or rather, in Ayano’s opinion, getting everyone who has red eyes together.

So, the obvious first step would be to find Seto’s friend, Marie.

“Kousuke, where does Marie live?”

Seto had been talking with some birds on the windowsill in the room he shared with his red eyed siblings. Ayano’s entrance had surprised them, so most of them flew off, with just one lingering, frantically flapping its ruffled feathers. Seto apologized to the bird before turning to his sister.

“Nee-chan, sorry! I was talking with the birds. What did you say?”

“My bad. I was wondering about Marie. She has red eyes too, right? Shouldn’t we have her meet the rest of the mekakushi-dan?”

“Marie’s a little scared of people, but I would like it if she could become friends with everyone, too. But, I’m not sure if it would be good to have her meet everyone at once.”

“How about just you and I visit her first then? That way we can ask her. Let’s go sometime soon, okay?”

“Alright!”

“Good, good,” Ayano contently left Seto, and went to sit in her mom’s study, a habit she had made to try to help both the mekakushi-dan and her mom.

She sat quietly in support as her mom continued reading back through pages she had, taking notes, brainstorming new possible connections. Ayaka would occasionally draw a mark next to something she wrote, type a message on her phone, and then return to working with her papers. She also seemed to be tapping her fingers on her desk a lot today, for some reason.

Ayano hoped that meeting Marie would be able to help her mom discover something new that could help them protect the mekakushi-dan.

As spring faded into summer, Ayano went with Seto for her first meeting with Marie.

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	8. Kisaragi Attention II

I=======I=======I

Kisaragi Attention II

I=======I=======I

Kido and Momo had finished Momo’s debut song. They collaborated on the sound style and lyrics, a push and pull between Kido’s serious, reserved ideas, and Momo’s ridiculous, exaggerated ideas, resulting in a song that wasn’t too boring for Momo to perform, but not too weird that Kido would be ashamed to take part in producing it.

Momo had wanted to put together a performance outfit, but Kido told her it would be better to hold off and wait until she was on a real stage for something like that.

For a venue, they chose a small park in town, where there was a gazebo they could use as a makeshift stage. Momo was impatient, so she decided she would perform the next day, and Kido agreed, but only out of fear for what outlandish things Momo might try to plan if given any more time.

So, the following morning, Kido arrived with a boombox and a CD with the accompaniment she produced for Momo. And Momo arrived, in something only slightly more formal than her usual wear, but also carrying a large costume prop pirate hat.

“Momo, didn’t I tell you we shouldn’t try out any costumes for your performance yet? What are you planning?”

“Oh this? Don’t worry, it’s for collecting donations!”

“Huh?”

“Yeah! I remember seeing street performers have a hat out to collect money from people who pass by! So, I brought with a big one just in case things go good today!”

“Right,” Kido nodded, recalling that Momo’s goal here was initially to have a job, but unconvinced they would make much today. She busied herself with making sure the boombox was in a good position, with the volume at a practical level.

Momo threw the ridiculous hat off to the side of steps to the gazebo, began practicing poses, and doing silly vocal warmups. This attracted the attention of people who had been passing near the park, and a small crowd began to gather.

Kido subconsciously became invisible as the number of people increased beyond reasonable levels for a random person doing an impromptu show. Momo was pretty sure she was still there, so she checked by waving her hand around the front of the boombox until she touched the top of Kido’s head, startling both of them.

“AH!” Momo lowered her voice to whisper so she didn’t make it look like part of her performance. “There you are! Are you ready? Can I start?”

“WOAH. Yeah, but don’t surprise me like that. I’m already rather nervous with how many people are here before we even started, and I’m not even the one on stage.”

“Right! I’ll leave it to you then.”

Momo hopped back up to the middle of the gazebo stage and made one of her poses.

“Hey there everybody! I’m Momo Kisaragi. I’m 12 years old, a first-year middle schooler. I wanna be an idol to help my mom! Please listen to my song!”

I=======I=======I

The audience loved her performance. A sizeable amount of cash was left for her in her cap, and a few people even asked for pictures with her.

Kido pulled her aside after a while, wanting to get away from the crowd, asking if they were done there yet. Momo agreed, saying she was hungry, so she took her final bow, seemingly disappearing as Kido took her hand.

In the following days, news spread around about her performance, many idol and music publishing companies reached out to her.

She was still too young to legally sign with a company by herself, but that just meant the messages discussed “training to prep for a big official debut” and “have your parents sign here so you can get started”. The messages had arrived at her school, since that was about the only information about her class year and name were the only personal information she mentioned at her live show. She had carried the huge sack of messages home with her and let them all on the ground of her room with a groan and a resounding thud.

Shintaro had been worried by the unusual sounds, so he went to check on Momo.

“Oi, Momo, I know you usually throw yourself on your floor with your homework, but something seems off today.”

“Yeah! There’s too many letters. And most of them say I need to get help from mom, when that’s exactly what I want to stop having her do by getting a job!”

“Letters? Job? What are you talking about?”

“Help me figure out which one of these letters doesn’t need me to ask mom so I can have a singing job to help her not have to do 3 jobs to pay off the debt!”

“Singing job…” Shintaro trailed off, looking at the various sender names and locations. “Wait! What is this! I’ve heard of this company! And this one too! Why are they writing to you?”

“Didn’t I already tell you I had a debut performance? You said you were busy and couldn’t come, but you heard I was going to sing, right?”

“When?”

“You dumb meanie! For such high grades, you sure are stupid. Maybe I’ll just tell mom to stop paying for the internet so she can quit one of her jobs.”

“Hey, what did you say? Take that back!”

“I’ll change my mind if you help me.” She threw some of the countless letters at her brother.

After some time sifting through letters, Shintaro found one for a local stage that offered to sponsor shows for her, with very plain language about how she would make a cut of the profits and no contract was necessary, only a release form for permission to appear on stage and in ads. Momo protested that it still needed her to ask their mom for help, but Shintaro explained that this was basically the same sort of form that was used for when pictures from the school would appear in the newspaper, instead of the kind where she would “sign her soul away”. Momo didn’t like the way he phrased that, so she hastily recycled all the other letters that she was now under the impression were literally asking for her soul.

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	9. Fantasy Forest

I=======I=======I

Fantasy Forest

I=======I=======I

Ayano and Seto had arrived at Marie’s house in the forest. It was a whimsical little place, not unlike the one drawn in the story of the Medusa that Ayaka often read to Ayano when she was younger. It differed in some ways, but it still brought a sense of melancholic nostalgia to Ayano for some reason.

She followed Seto up to the door, where he knocked and called for her.

“Marie, it’s Seto. I brought with nee-chan today, I hope that’s okay.”

After a few disjointed noises came from inside the house, the white-haired girl who appeared to be Ayano’s age appeared at the door.

“Seto! Nee-chan!” she greeted cheerfully. She looked to Ayano, looking her up and down once before continuing. “Let me make you some tea since it’s your first time visiting, nee-chan.” She pulled the door open, inviting them inside, and daintily scurried off to make some tea.

She seemed to be muttering something to herself from the kitchen while she made the tea, but Ayano couldn’t really make out what she was saying. She looked to Seto, who didn’t seem worried.

“She’s nervous about meeting people, so she’s probably calming herself down while she’s working on the tea.”

Ayano turned back towards the kitchen. She could hear some occasional words through the mumbling, like “scary” and “first time” and “why”. It added up with Seto’s explanation, so she let Marie be and sat down at the table with Seto to wait.

I=======I========I

When Marie arrived with the tea, Ayano explained that Marie didn’t have to call her nee-chan, but Marie insisted that it felt right.

“Nee-chan and Seto’s mom is trying to find out something about red eyes, right?”

Ayano was a bit surprised she already knew. Seto must have mentioned it before.

“I have a journal from my grandma, she and my mom had red eyes too, like mine and Seto’s, and Seto’s brother and sister and friend Momo.”

She got up to go get it from a nearby desk, while she continued explaining. “Seto says that mom is always worried about it, but he didn’t want to take grandma’s journal because it’s precious, but if nee-chan looks at it, maybe she knows if it will be helpful or not?”

Marie placed the thick, well-worn journal on the table in front of Ayano. It gave off a foreboding aura in Ayano’s eyes, giving her the feeling like she was peering down a steep ledge. She could tell this would drastically change things for the children with red eyes, but she wasn’t sure if it would be good or bad.

“I’ve looked at it a little bit before,” Seto explained, “but it just seemed the same as the Medusa story, only it told each day as it happened, and the Medusa and her family have names.”

Ayano nodded. She decided to open the cover and take a look inside. She flipped past many pages at a time, settling upon a spot at random.

This page had a drawing on it. It was sketch of small baby with only her bright red eyes colored in. The text with the picture read, “This is my beloved daughter, Shion. The snake of favoring eyes was also born when she was, so I could express to her how much I love her.”

“That’s my mother,” Marie smiled proudly. “I open to this page a lot, it’s the only picture I have of her other than the ones I drew myself.”

Ayano processed this information slowly, and then softly gasped, having her breath caught in her throat as she realized that Marie truly was the granddaughter of the Medusa from the story her mom loved so much.

But this raised so many more questions instead of answers. Ayano knew this would make her own mother even busier than ever. Her mom had said it was important to get a big new lead soon, though. It would be for the best to get her this information as soon as possible.

“Marie-chan, is it okay for me to show my mom this journal?”

“I’d like that, I was hoping Seto would borrow it so your mom might worry less. I think everyone would be happier that way.”

“I think so too, but can you come with us? Just for a couple days? I originally wanted to introduce you the mekakushi-dan, but I think my mom will want to meet you, too. We can even come back here with you to make sure you make it home safely.”

“I can protect you if you’re scared!” Seto interjected, with his hands clenched in determination.

Marie hesitated. “Go with you…”

She looked at the ground.

“The thing is, nee-chan, I have a weird feeling that if I leave here with someone, they’re going to get hurt. I’m scared you’ll be mad if someone gets hurt. I don’t want to do that.”

Seto looked up at her. He was still shorter than her since he hadn’t hit his growth spurt yet. “But Marie, you wouldn’t hurt us. If something bad happens, it’s not your fault, right?”

Marie looked back up towards Seto and Ayano, but she seemed to be looking beyond them, at something far away. “Not… my fault,” she echoed. She blinked a bit. “Do you think so too, nee-chan?” she asked.

Ayano pointed at herself inquisitively, not quite sure how her opinion would help, but nodded. “Yeah, it definitely wouldn’t be your fault.”

Marie nodded, and worked up her resolve. “Okay. I think I will be okay if you both think so.” With that, she went to pack a small bag of a few of her belongings.

When she was ready, the three of them set off on their journey to go to the Tateyama household.

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	10. days I

I=======I=======I

days I

I=======I=======I

Ayaka wasn’t expecting this. She didn’t know what she was expecting when she had made the note about Seto’s friend Marie having red eyes, but it wasn’t… this.

She held out a journal to Ayaka that she explained Ayano had told her was the story of the Medusa.

The Medusa wrote? How could she have written her own story, without anyone ever knowing? Was that possible?

Ayano nodded. “This really is the story of the Medusa, from her own hand. Marie wanted us to look at it so we can help the mekakushi-dan.”

“My grandmother really wrote it,” Marie explained.

There were so many answers just a question away from discovery for Ayaka, but answers always came with new questions. Still, this was exactly the thing she needed in order to get approval to continue getting support from her research group for her work on the legend of the Medusa.

“Your grandmother? I’ll have to ask you more about that later. May I hold on to this journal for a bit?” Ayaka asked, receiving the journal from Marie.

“If it can help Seto’s family, just a bit should be okay. Can I still look at it sometimes while you have it?”

“Of course,” Ayaka gently smiled. “I better get to work right away, there isn’t a moment to waste!”

I=======I=======I

Ayaka spent the next several hours at her desk, taking notes as she spotted things of interest. Things like, the use of a snake’s power, the time that had passed, and especially, the names of the people involved. A human named Tsukihiko. Tsukihiko gave her a name. The Medusa… the name that was given to her, it was Azami. She had started writing this journal after Tsukihiko had built her a house in the woods, but she wanted to start writing from the beginning of her story, because he often asked her about it.

The events of her origin differed very little from the folklore that had ended up in the storybook, but the point of view was entirely new. They weren’t the words of someone who had just heard of the story. They were the words of someone who was there, who was reacting and feeling about these events as they happened. The birth of each snake, out of a desperate desire for something. The birth of a freely existing soul, a body, an understanding of feelings, and so on, each as they were needed.

Ayaka couldn’t believe that such a thing had been recorded. She felt a strong sense of gratitude for Azami’s beloved Tsukihiko, for prompting the now legendary Medusa to write down her story herself. It wasn’t just a fairy tale. The children’s eyes, the reason that each power corresponded to a snake, which had been drawn to each child, these things were all connected.

But Ayaka still didn’t know _why_ the snakes had left the Medusa- no, left Azami in the first place. She continued reading, awed in each new detail that had been left out of the storybook, both longing for the conclusion to bring her answers, and wishing the conclusion would never come, so she could get to know more and more about Azami, who she had been searching for all this time.

I=======I=======I

Ayano had taken it upon herself to prepare dinner, knowing her mother would be busy for a while.

“Say, Marie,” she called outside, where Seto had been introducing Marie to some of the birds, “what sort of foods do you like? I’m going to make dinner.”

Marie turned toward where Ayano was calling from. “Foods? I haven’t had any in a while, can I see?”

“Sure. Do you want to help us too, Kousuke?”

“Yeah!”

The three of them went to the kitchen and Ayano started showing Marie around. The fridge, the microwave, the appliances, and so forth were all new and surprising to Marie. She didn’t have anything like this in her kitchen.

“We’ll need this, right?” Seto asked Ayano, pulling out a fairly large rice cooker.

“I’d say so!” Ayano nodded.

“What’s this one do?” Marie asked.

“Well,” Ayano began to explain, taking out a bag of rice, “You wash your rice, you put it in, add some water and it does the rest for you!”

“Really?” Marie gasped, as she had already done several times at other things they had shown her. She watched as Ayano and Seto milled around, preparing and closing the rice cooker.

“Oh, Marie! Try this,” Seto energetically pointed to a large button on the front of it.

“This one?” Marie asked, touching it.

“Yeah, press it!” He cheered her on, while Ayano softly giggled.

She pushed on it, and it made a little beeping noise, startling Marie. “Eep!” she exclaimed, hiding behind Seto.

“Good job!” He smiled back at her.

“It’s okay?”

Ayano peeked around Seto to look at Marie. “Yep! That means it’s working.”

I=======I=======I

Ayaka felt someone prod at her shoulder, making her jump a bit.

“Dear, you should come eat something,” Kenjiro suggested to her.

“I’ll be fine,” she lied, the notepad on her desk catching her eye as she looked up. She hadn’t touched it in some time, had she? She must’ve gotten too caught up in enjoying the story unfolding. Her stomach betrayed her lie as she tried to scribble down a few notes as long as she had been interrupted.

“I know this is a huge breakthrough for you, but don’t you think you should rest easy for a bit? Don’t you think so too, since you can secure permission to continue working on it now?”

She furrowed her eyebrows a bit at her notepad, then lifted it up and lightly bonked her husband on the head with it.

“It’s just too interesting to stop now! This part is really fun, and you’re asking me to stop?” she insisted, pleading with her eyes.

Her stomach rumbled again. She sighed.

“Okay, fine, I’ll take a meal break.”

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	11. Losstime Prologue III

I=======I=======I

Losstime Prologue III

I=======I=======I

Takane received several messages from Ayaka since the time she had first met her. They were always questions, ranging from rather specific ones, such as if she was acquainted with the few workers and one participant who had disappeared the day she awoke to her powers, to rather broad ones, like what her wishes and aspirations in life are.

It turned out that Takane had been acquainted with the other participant that vanished that day, she had been one of the few other girls participating in the tournament, and despite her being somewhat pushy in trying to get to know Takane, she admittedly had grown somewhat fond of her by the time the tournament concluded. She felt a twinge of guilt that she might be connected to that disappearance and didn’t even know for all those months that she had disappeared.

But when it came to Takane’s wishes and aspirations, she felt like she didn’t have much she thought was worth noting. Maybe not randomly passing out would be nice. Aiming to kick Kisaragi Shintaro’s ass during the next _Dead Bullet -1989-_ tournament was definitely something she had on her mind. But she felt as though none of these were really what Ayaka wanted to know, so she simply told her she’d have to think about it.

She had just received a new message from Ayaka’s address. But the contents were not from Ayaka.

>>This isn’t Ayaka, Sorry.  
I’m her daughter, Ayano.  
You have red eyes too, right?  
Can I meet you?  
XXXX-XX-XXXX  
This is my phone number.  
Please contact me!  
Thank you.

The part where she mentioned Takane also having red eyes- did that mean Ayaka’s own daughter had red eyes? Was that what she was so fervently researching for? It seemed like Ayano had went to a lot of trouble to send this message. Something about that reminded her of the almost a friend she had lost at the tournament. Thinking of it that way made Takane feel like she should at least maybe acknowledge this Ayano.

It was also a good opportunity to try out something she had wanted to attempt in her virtual form. She didn’t have any friends that she felt close enough to reveal her power to that she could send a message to in order to try it out. She had thought about asking Haruka, but it seemed just plain stupid to go to the hospital room where they couldn’t use electronics to ask him to help test out something with electronics. Besides, when she thought about the faces he might make at her trying to reassure her if it didn’t work, she couldn’t stand that!

So, she was going to do it. She would text herself to this Ayano person, and since she already knew about red eyes, it wouldn’t be weird if it did end up working.

>>This is Takane.  
You’re Ayano, right?  
If the next message appears as an attachment, please open it!  
>> _attached: “ene.gif”_

I======I======I

Ayano hadn’t expected a reply so fast after sneaking a message out in her mother’s name. She opened up the text message, and there was a moving image of a girl who looked like she was from a video game.

“Oh, good, this worked!” The image said, audible through her phone speaker. The girl from the image moved outside of the borders of the image, and toward Ayano, becoming larger on the screen.

“Uwahh!” Ayano exclaimed, startled as the girl appeared to get right up to the edge of the screen, and dropped her phone on to her bed.

“Oh, maybe I should’ve chosen something a bit more causal than my Dead Bullet costume for a meeting like this, sorry,” The girl said.

Ayano leaned over to peek at her phone screen while her phone was still laying on her bed. “Is this your ability with your red eyes?” she asked the girl.

“That’s right! You can call me Ene.”

“Wow, Ene, you’re very cool! Did you say something about changing costumes? Can you do that in the phone?”

“Sure, probably. It would help to see what I want to change my clothes into though.”

“Oh, I have a dress up game, let me use that to help!”

“Dress up? It better not be too dressy, or I’ll go back to my own phone, got it?”

“It’ll be fine, we can choose together!” Ayano navigated to her dress up game app while Ene watched from the edge of the screen. “So, your eyes are already red because you’re using your power, should we leave them like that, or…?”

“Oh, I never thought about trying, what do we have?”

Ayano opened up a color palette along the side of the game, and Ene looked it up and down.

“Oh, this color reminds me of that virtual pop star, you know the one, right?” Ene made her eyes blue, and then switched to make her hair blue. “How about that? And then I can sing something like ‘sekai de ichiban ohime-‘”

Ene was cut off by an ad appearing on screen over her.

“Oh, sorry! I only have the free version,” Ayano explained, closing out of the ad. “I like those colors though, here let me try something.”

Ayano chose a zip up sweater with long sleeves for Ene in the same color as she had chosen for her hair. “Normally, the red eyed children wear hoodies to hide their eyes, but if yours are already hidden with a costume like this, just an ordinary jacket looks good, right?”

“Oh, I see. Sure, that’s good.” Ene flicked through the tabs and chose more different things to try on with the sweater Ayano had chosen for her.

While she was trying things, Ayano took the chance to bring up the reason she got in touch with Ene in the first place.

“Say, Ene? Would you join my friends who have red eyes and me? I like for everyone who has red eyes to be able to depend on each other, since life can be hard for them.”

“Huh? Your friends with red eyes? You don’t have them?” Ene stopped changing things to pay attention.

“My siblings do, and we met a few other people, so I like to try to help them out, by making sure they can all stick together.”

“Hmm.” Takane pondered to herself. It might be okay. She didn’t have anything to gain or lose. “Send me a message next time you see all of them and maybe I’ll meet with them like this if I have time, okay?” She smirked, then went back to picking out different parts of her outfit.

“I’m glad! I’m looking forward to that. Thank you, Ene!”

“No problem. This outfit turned out good, huh?” She spun around in the outfit she decided on, her skirt and extra long sleeves fluttering as she turned.

“I like it a lot!”

“I’ll wear it next time you call for me. I better get back now, though.”

“Oh, already? See you later then.”

“See ya!” Ene winked, pixelating out, with a “message sent” notification appearing on Ayano’s screen.

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	12. days II

I=======I=======I

days II

I=======I=======I

Ayaka spent weeks pouring over Azami’s journal. Although Marie hadn’t planned to stay very long, Ayaka was very willing to accommodate her. Both for the sake of her own research, and knowing that Marie must really be Azami’s granddaughter to have had access to a journal like this, as well as taking such good care of it for how old it must be.

June turned to July, July to August, and Ayaka had finally reached the end of the entries.

It didn’t seem like Azami had intended that entry to be the last one, though. In fact, Ayaka had been anticipating the last entry to be on the wedding that Azami and Tsukihiko were going to have, but this one stated that Tsukihiko hadn’t yet returned.

Also, when comparing the way it ended to the way the storybook about the legend ended, it seemed strange. The legend went that the Medusa hated the world because her happiness wouldn’t last, so in the end, she abandoned it. But Azami in the journal had become very fond of the curious nature of the things in the world. She was only going to leave after her wedding to keep her family safe in the endless world that she had created.

In the legend, she left alone. In this journal, she wouldn’t leave if she were to leave by herself. It seemed strange. Ayaka decided she would ask Marie about if she knew anything about what really happened.

I=======I=======I

Ayaka had invited Marie into her study. Marie was hugging the journal, trying not to be too nervous about bring talked to by the elusive Ayaka, who she had barely seen while she was staying here.

“Marie, do you know what happened to your grandmother, in the end?”

“In the end?”

“Her journal ends on a fairly ordinary day, so I was curious if she ever made it to the endless world. The heat haze, she called it?”

“Oh, that part,” Marie nodded, looking forlornly toward the journal in her arms. “Mom told me. It’s sad, do you really want to know?”

“I want to know what really happened. People who heard about her told stories about her, and other people have told those stories to each other for hundreds of years. Since your grandmother had those same red eyes, with all the different abilities, I think if I can find out what really happened to her, I can find out why all of those children have red eyes now.”

Marie smiled a little, gaining courage because she really wanted to help with that. “It was a very long time ago, like you said.”

Ayaka grabbed a notepad and prepared to take note on important details. “Right.”

“She said that her mama thought that her papa was approaching in the forest, so they went to look out the door. They looked around a bit, and then her mama told her to wait inside while she checked by herself. Then a lot of people came out of the forest, and her mama was angry with them, and she fought with them, and it was scary. She hid inside until she heard her papa’s voice calling for her mama, and when she looked outside, her mama was disappearing into another world. Her mama said to her and her papa that she was sorry, and that she loved them.”

Ayaka hadn’t written any notes. It wasn’t anything like what she hoped for. She hung her head, like Marie had as she was finishing the story.

“I see. So that’s really what happened then, huh?”

“Sorry. It really is sad. I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have told you because it was too sad, wasn’t it? I’m sorry.”

“Please don’t worry about that, I’m glad you were able to tell me. I think I might be able to figure out more about what happened to the others now.”

“Really?” Marie’s mood shifted suddenly, realizing she had been helpful.

“Yep! But I also want to know, have you had an experience where you were swallowed up by another world like that? It’s okay if you don’t remember something like that, it’s possible you have red eyes because you’re her granddaughter-”

“It happened once.” Marie cut her off, somewhat bluntly.

Ayaka only got a brief gasp in before Marie continued.

“When my mom disappeared. I played a little too deep in the forest, and some people found me and started pulling my hair and poking me with sticks. Mama heard me crying and rushed out to save me, but she got hurt, and everything hurt, hurt, hurt, until suddenly a something like that swallowed us up. I think I saw grandmama for just a moment. But I think maybe I imagined it. When I woke up again, mama was gone, and I wasn’t hurt anymore.”

“ _Really_ ,” Ayaka declared, fascinated that even Marie had experienced the swallowing up that she now suspected was the haze.

“Yeah. It was pretty scary, and I miss mama a lot, but I’m glad I’ve been okay since then, since I got to meet Seto and everyone.”

“Would your eyes turn red before that, or only after that? Do you know?” Ayaka asked a bit hurriedly, enthusiastically writing notes to update her case study chart.

“Hmm. Maybe. I didn’t really know anyone who would have told me before I met Seto.”

“And what happens when your eyes turn red?”

“It makes people stop, like a statue. But they aren’t stone. And they can get better, luckily.”

“Oh, I see, interesting, that’s a very well-suited power to the granddaughter of the one who was called the Medusa.”

“Seto also said it seemed like my eyes turned red when I looked at the other mekakushi-dan members for the first time, but it didn’t paralyze anyone. He said I should tell you since it’s red eyes! But I don’t know what it means.”

“Well, your eyes are nearly red normally anyway, but I think Kousuke might notice something small changing like that, so I’ll write it down just in case. Thank you.”

“Is it okay if I go outside now?”

“Oh, one more thing, the day that your mom disappeared, do you know what day that was?”

“It was a long time ago… but it was only a little while after my birthday, so I think it was still summertime.”

“Oh, which day is your birthday?”

“It’s one moon after summer starts. Seto said it’s probably somewhere around July 21st.”

“Interesting, thank you! That helps. It’s alright if you go now.”

“I’m happy it helped,” Marie smiled as she set down the journal and curtsied before leaving.

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	13. Additional Memory -alternative-

I=======I=======I

Additional Memory -alternative-

I=======I=======I

Ayaka had decided she could no longer delay her desire to see the home where Azami had lived to see if there was anything else she could discover there. She didn’t want to wait until she was done compiling her notes. She needed to do this now, because she felt that she was on the verge of the final breakthrough- the one that would reveal to her how to remove the red eyes from the children, so they could live their lives safely and comfortably.

Ayaka was going to have Marie show herself and her husband to the house, as Ayaka wanted Kenjiro to rely on incase she would accidentally look over any details from being caught up in awe of the place.

However, Marie was very nervous about this request.

“I’m not so sure… I don’t think it would be safe. Even though nee-chan said it wouldn’t be my fault, I’m still afraid of going with someone through the forest. I’m sure they’ll get hurt.” She wrung her hands and looked away from Ayaka.

Ayano arrived then, surprised to find her mother somewhere other than in her study. Marie looked to Ayano in a plea for help.

“If nee-chan came too, maybe it would be okay!” she stammered, trying to smile at Ayano.

Ayano looked into Marie’s eyes, and then looked back towards her mother, who she had initially come for.

“Is there something still at Marie’s house? Why go so suddenly?”

“I wanted to see it with my own eyes. I think something important will be there. If I can just look around a little, I should be able to find it.”

“Something important? Like what?”

“Something that can help me figure out how to contact Azami. If she’s still in that other world, she would be the one person who could help me figure out how to take her powers out of the children, so they can live safely again.”

Marie grabbed her skirt and began to wring at it nervously. “Um, is there really something like that? I get the feeling that my mama would have known if there was.”

“It’s the only thing I can think of trying right now.” Ayaka crossed her arms and tapped her fingers on her upper arm. “Even if there isn’t something like that, I want to at least see if I can get any sort of idea of what to do next by seeing where she lived.”

Marie, still wringing her skirt, looked at Ayano again. “I could try to go, but nee-chan, you have to come too.”

Ayano looked carefully over Marie. Her eyes were even more troubled looking than they had been when she and Kousuke first escorted her back to their house.

Ayaka also noticed Marie’s dread. Was she feeling that way because this was the forest where she lost her own mother to the haze? Feeling she understood, she stopped tapping her fingers, and she nodded.

“Marie, if you’re scared to go travelling, I can take Kousuke or Ayano instead. They’ve both been there before, so you won’t have to worry about going with us if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

“Please don’t leave me here without Seto!” Marie immediately answered, letting go of her skirt and clenching her hands pleadingly, a bit red in the cheeks.

Ayaka and Ayano both giggled gently. Marie hid her cheeks with her hands.

“If that’s how you feel, then Ayano will probably be able to show me there, right?” Ayaka smiled towards her daughter.

Ayano nodded with a warm smile. “Of course, mom. I’d be happy to.”

Ayaka confidently placed her hands on her hips. “Alright then! You and I and your father will all go there soon then, okay?”

I=======I======I

Ayano had fallen asleep on the car ride to the forest. She remembered feeling a bit sleepy when she left the car, but she was still able to recognize all the spots Kousuke had pointed out to her when they first visited Marie together.

She must’ve remembered well enough, because before long, she saw the quaint cottage. She ran over to the door and opened it up.

She went inside, where she saw someone she didn’t recognize. It was a woman with long, dark hair tied back in a red ribbon. Who was this? There wasn’t supposed to be someone else living in Marie’s house, was there?

Before she could open her mouth to ask the woman who she was, the woman’s red eyes met Ayano’s gaze.

“How could you expect to see someone different in my house?” The woman asked, mildly discontented, yet amused. “Have you been here, in my house before?”

She wasn’t sure why the woman already knew what she was feeling, but she answered the questions anyway. “This is where Marie lives, isn’t it? I’ve visited her here before.”

Upon hearing Marie’s name mentioned, the woman’s face lit up. “Marie? You knew her?” she asked, with an innocent and hopeful expression like one Marie might make.

“I know her,” Ayano answered. “She’s a good friend of mine, she has red eyes like my younger siblings.”

She took a moment to respond, as if she was processing what Ayano was telling her. “You sure care for her and your siblings a lot. I’m glad that you seem to have received the favoring eyes snake, so she and those siblings of yours will know that they are truly loved.”

“A snake?” Ayano gasped. “Wait, are you…?”

“You better hurry, I don’t want you to get caught up here for good, if you are someone who can truly care for my granddaughter.”

“But that means you’re- How… Where… Why…?”

“Listen. If you receive my feelings, which I can give you with the favoring eyes before I turn it completely over to you, it will answer any questions you might have.”

“Receive them?” Ayano asked, and suddenly felt as though she was falling through the sky. She began to dream, she dreamt the Medusa’s life and feelings going by, many times over again.

I=======I======I

Ayano’s dreams faded back into her own life, where she felt herself falling back into her own world, as well as her own feelings up until that point.

That point.

She was waking up, in what must be her reality. She didn’t feel like she was falling anymore. There was rubble everywhere, which she was laying on top of. She tried to stand up, struggling from feeling tired and trying to stand on unsteady rocks, then looked around. She saw her mother laying down, near some trees that hadn’t become victims to the assault of rocks and dirt. She made her way towards her mother.

“Mom? Mom!” she yelled, as she tried to walk over.

When she finally reached her side, her mother was still breathing, and apparently injured from the rockslide, but not critically.

Her brown eyes fluttered open as Ayano rubbed her cheek. “Ayano? Are you okay? What happened? I heard something over here, so I came this direction, but then I can’t quite remember.” She blinked a few times at her daughter, and suddenly her eyes went wide. “Ayano?”

“Mom, I’m so glad you’re okay,” Ayano wept.

“Sweetie,” Ayaka smiled weakly, also crying. “I understand. I can feel your feelings overflowing into me. I’m so sorry I let this happen to you too, I should’ve been more careful.”

“What do you mean?” Ayano asked, wiping some of her tears away.

“Your eyes are red now, like the others.” Ayaka sighed as she struggled to sit upright. She tried to catch her breath, but it got caught up as she murmured something.

Ayano put her hands to her face, feeling around the edges of her eyes trying to figure out anything, despite not being able to learn much from touching near them. “Red…?” she whispered.

Ayaka murmured a bit more before trying to speak to her daughter. “Ayano,” her mother hoarsely began. “Ayano, my… your…” she became at a loss for words. “Kenjiro.” she managed to say.

Ayano was still worried about her eyes being red now, but this was important too. “Dad? Where is dad? Did you see him?”

“No,” her mother choked out, tears beginning to fall again. “He went after you first before I did. I don’t see him now.” She took a few shallow breaths, trying to maintain what little composure she had left. “And I don’t know if we ever will now,” she bawled.

Ayano now understood. As her fear and horror flowed from her red eyes into her mother’s heart, they both wept uncontrollably.

I=======I======I

Eventually, they returned to the car by the edge of the forest.

“I should have waited one more day,” Ayaka wept. “But I took us somewhere dangerous on the cursed day, August 15th, because I thought that it being that day would mean I could definitely find a way to help them.”

Ayano stayed by her side. “You couldn’t have known it would be dangerous, mama.”

Even after requesting help and spending weeks searching, Kenjiro wasn’t found. Ayaka was sure from her research that he wouldn’t be.

I=======I=======I

Somewhere, a certain snake was smirking. Nearly all the snakes had escaped from the haze.

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	14. Happiness Theory IV

I=======I=======I

Happiness Theory IV

I=======I=======I

The terrible turn of events was a deep wound to the Tateyama family. Ayano herself, in what appeared to be a miracle, suffered no physical injuries, but as for Ayaka, she had suffered more severe injuries than she initially admitted to. Still, with attention from the hospital, she was recovering at a steady pace.

This left Ayano as the sole person in care of her younger siblings. It wasn’t unusual for Ayano to look after them herself, since her parents had usually been busy, but with her father now missing and mother recovering, it was disheartening to not have anyone to look forward to sharing the stories of her joys and worries of taking care of them with.

The current situation was like this-

Kido was always secluded, but Ayano didn’t hear the various melodies she had been working on coming from her room anymore. When Ayano did catch a glance of her, she was intently listening to her earphones, with a faraway look in her eyes.

Seto and Marie would still go outside together often, but they didn’t excitedly talk about plans to go anywhere further away like they had been before, they would only walk in the woods near the house and would tell Ayano about what they had seen nearby. Things like the changing colors of the leaves as autumn approached, the small animals they talked with, and so forth. Ayano’s eyes would usually become red as they told her about those things, conveying her appreciation for the little things and gratitude that they would share those stories with her.

Kano had finally gotten the excuse he had wanted to stop attending school, but truthfully, he had only truly decided to stop attending to make sure he was able to watch over Ayano, who had also been given time off, while everything was becoming so difficult for her. She was more likely now than ever to do something she might regret, and Kano would do anything in his power to prevent her from doing something like that.

Things carried on this way for a couple of months, only changing when Ayano had received a message from Takane, asking her if she was having trouble with her mekakushi-dan, since she hadn’t messaged her to come by and meet them yet, as well as the lack of messages from Ayaka being rather strange to her.

Ayano, who had just finished folding some laundry when she saw the message, was unable to maintain her composure and broke down.

Kano, who had returned from putting some of the laundry Ayano had folded away, immediately ran over to her and hugged her, sharing a quiet moment.

“Shuuya,” Ayano hoarsely whispered, trying to choke back her tears and be strong.

Kano nodded, waiting for her to continue.

She sputtered on her words a bit. “It’s nothi… I’m alright, rea-”

“Lies don’t suit you, nee-chan,” he chided her, catching her gaze.

Ayano’s eyes, red with both tears and otherworldly power gave everything away. Kano could hear her feelings of guilt loudly wailing, with embellishments of self-loathing and fear mixed in.

“This isn’t your fault, none of this is,” he assured her. He glanced next to her. “On your phone, it’s probably something about mom, isn’t it?”

She was able to smile a little as she thought again about the message, turning to her phone, picking it up. “Sort of. It’s a friend asking about her.”

“A friend? Is it Momo?”

“No, actually I found out about this person from mom’s notes. She was the person mom met with when I went with Momo to visit her big brother. This girl has red eyes too.”

“Oh, I see,”

“I wanted to introduce her to you and the rest of the mekakushi-dan, since she has red eyes too. She was wondering why I hadn’t introduced her yet, as well as why mom hasn’t asked her any questions lately.”

“She sounds interesting, and I think it would put us all in a good mood if we met a new friend, wouldn’t it? We’re very worried about you, nee-chan.”

She messaged back to Takane.

>>Sorry.  
>>I think it would be easier if we met to talk about it.  
>>How soon can you talk with us?

I=======I=======I

Tired of waiting for a reply, Ayano and Kano now stood outside of the door to the three younger siblings’ room.

“Tsubomi?” Ayano softly called, tapping on the door gently. “Tsubomi, can you come out to spend some time with us in a bit?”

Kido must still be wearing her earphones because she didn’t respond.

Seeing Ayano getting nowhere, Kano took initiative.

“Oi, Kido,” he called, decidedly louder than Ayano, knocking on the door a few times.

Beyond the door, there was a rustling, and Kano went to open the door to make sure, but Ayano laid her hand on his, which was on the knob, and shook her head. He let go, following Ayano’s lead and taking a step back.

The door creaked from being pushed against, but not opened. Even though they couldn’t sense her presence, they were sure she was there.

Ayano spoke to her, past the door. “Are you feeling okay? I was hoping to spend some time with everyone later.”

There was no reply.

“If you’re not feeling up to it, that’s okay too. It’s important to give yourself some space if you need it. If you want, I can have Marie stay in my room instead, and you can stay in guest room by yourself instead of your usual room until you’re feeling okay.”

There was some more silence, but as Ayano opened her mouth, Kido’s reply came, preceded by a soft inhale.

“Please do,”

Kano was feeling like wrangling Kido out of the room himself, sure that getting her to spend time with Ayano would lift her spirits, but the soft warmth in Ayano’s brown eyes as she nodded towards the door and assured Kido that she would do that for her communicated her feelings to Kano, possibly even more effectively than they would if they were red.

“I will.”

Seto and Marie would return sometime later, as they usually spent the day outdoors. For now, Ayano and Kano continued to do chores, awaiting their return.

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


	15. Happiness Theory V

I=======I=======I

Happiness Theory V

I=======I=======I

Ayano and Takane had settled on having Takane meet the mekakushi-dan after dinner.

For now, Seto and Marie had just returned, so Kano had gone to help them move Marie into Ayano’s room so Kido could have some space to herself.

There wasn’t much to move, but some of it was fragile, and Marie was somewhat accident prone when she was anywhere other than her house in the woods, so it still took some time even with three of them working at it.

Ayano prepared dinner and set aside a tray for Kido, as she had done since she became secluded. This time, she left a note with it to tell her that they would be done clearing out the guest room for her by the time they were eating dinner, so she could move there.

As evening was setting in, Ayano, Seto, Kano, and Marie were eating their dinner at the table.

“It’s wonderful to eat so often while I’m here. I think I’ve had more tasty food since I came here than I’ve ever eaten in my whole life,” Marie mused, enthusiastically trying each side dish with a bit of rice in between each bite.

Ayano and Seto giggled and smiled, and Kano shook his head. “Sometimes I forget you’re weird like that, but every time you open your mouth, you remind me,” he laughed.

Marie tilted her head, a bit forlorn. “Weird like what? It really is tasty food.”

“I agree,” Seto nodded, glancing toward Marie. Then he looked to Ayano. “Actually nee-chan, it seems even tastier tonight. Did something good happen?”

Ayano smiled at her food before answering, proud of her work. “Yeah, I have a friend I want to introduce you to. I was going to call her after dinner.”

“A-a new person?” Marie stuttered, dropping the rice she had in her chopsticks.

“It’s just on the phone Marie, you won’t see them,” Seto tried to comfort her.

“Your friend is invisible? Like Kido?” Marie frowned, still looking very anxious.

“Actually, you’ll see her on my phone screen,” Ayano explained. “But she’ll be meeting everyone, not just you, so you don’t need to worry.”

“She has red eyes too,” Kano added. “I think that’s rather important to know.”

“Wow, so many new mekakushi-dan members lately,” Seto observed. “But how are we gonna add a new member without Kido or Momo?”

“Well, I don’t know if she’ll want to join us yet, but if she does, we can decide that more officially later, okay?” Ayano smiled.

“Say, Momo and Marie haven’t even met each other yet,” Kano mentioned. “Although Momo had to take summer classes last I heard, so it’s no wonder we haven’t seen her in a while.”

“Oh! We should check on her soon, too. What kind of leader am I if I can’t take care of all my mekakushi-dan members?”

“We’re supposed to take care of each other, nee-chan,” Kano assured her.

I======I======I

While the others were taking care of the dishes downstairs, Ayano went to pick up Kido’s dishes.

“Tsubomi,” Ayano spoke softly, “I hope being in your own room helps you. If I can do anything else for you, just let me know.”

She paused, hoping there might be some response.

Before turning away to go back downstairs with the dishes, she thought of one more thing to say. “We take care of each other,” she began, the words coming out a bit shakily, as she tried to recall and believe them. “So, ask anyone if you need anything, okay?”

She could sense Kido’s presence just behind the door for a moment before it became obscured again. It was enough of an answer for her, so she went back downstairs to help the others with the dishes before contacting Takane.

I=======I======I

Having collected all the members she could of the mekakushi-dan, being herself, Seto, Kano, and Marie, Ayano sent a message to Takane saying they were ready, and patiently awaited her arrival.

Within moments, Ene appeared on screen, clad in blue.

“Nice to meet you, everyone! I’m Ene.” She exclaimed.

Kano and Seto were impressed, and Marie tilted her head. “Is she on TV? Can she hear us?”

Trying not to get infuriated, Ene explained. “No, I’m not on TV! I’m in Ayano’s phone, and I can see AND hear you!”

Marie gasped, and hid behind Seto.

Ene continued. “This is my special power, Ayano called it a red eyes power, I think? Of course, my eyes aren’t red right now because I can change my appearance when I’m online, but…” she shook her head and started flailing her arms. “Why am I explaining this to you like it’s show and tell, I’m not just something for you to gawk at! Ayano said you’re the mekakushi-dan, right? What do you do? Is it related to your mom’s research?”

Ayano’s expression darkened a bit at mention of her mother, but Kano grabbed her shoulder and took over for her. “In the mekakushi-dan, we do what we want! We fight evil, look for people with red eyes, and enjoy ourselves. Your power seems pretty useful, Ene-san.”

“Ohoho, useful? Is that a compliment? Or are you trying to trick me into joining you?”

“Don’t worry about Kano,” Seto explained, “We’re meeting you because you have red eyes, and that’s our specialty. Also, you’re friends with nee-chan, right?”

“Hmm, yeah? What of it?” Ene asked, still skeptical, floating sideways across the screen.

“She recently got those red eyes herself, so things are a bit difficult,” Kano explained.

“Huh?” Ene took interest, leaving her drift and coming closer to the screen.

Ayano gave that half smile Kano could tell was forced. “Yep, so now I’m like everyone else in the mekakushi-dan. But dad’s missing. And mom got hurt, she’s in the hospital right now. She has been for about 2 months now.”

“That’s rough, I had no idea…”

They sat in silence for a heavy moment, no one meeting anyone else’s gaze.

“Have… uh, you visited her?” Ene asked.

“I…” Ayano started, her eyes going red as she looked toward Ene.

Ene’s eyes got replaced with binary strings as she zoned out. She shut her eyes after a moment, then shook her head.

“Hey, warn me before you do a data input like that!” Ene scolded Ayano, holding her head.

“Sorry, sometimes I’m so overcome, it just floods out through my power like that,” Ayano explained, shaking her head, covering her eyes with her hands.

“It’s okay, I get it, red eyes are difficult,” Ene nodded. “But even if you’re scared to go visit her, what if we went together? I’ve been meaning to go visit that hospital too. So, maybe I could meet up with you there?”

Kano glanced at Ayano, whose eyes were their normal brown again. She was considering.

“We can handle ourselves, nee-chan, you should go. I’m sure mom is lonely, and it would be good to meet with Ene since you’re friends, right?”

Ayano nodded. “Yeah, let’s meet up there soon, Ene. When can you go?”

“I barely have anything worth doing, so anytime is fine with me,” she yawned. “But it’s not that I don’t think this is worth doing, rather that, uh…”

Ayano laughed. “So, is tomorrow okay?”

“Sure! It’s a plan.”

They laughed together a while longer, with even Marie speaking to Ene a bit, before Ene returned home for the evening.

I=======I=======I

chapter /END

I=======I=======I


End file.
